


a picture is worth a thousand words.

by karadanvers



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/M, inspired by that one episode of lois and clark tnaos, set in s1 canon- cat and winn are both still at catco
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-06
Updated: 2018-07-06
Packaged: 2019-06-01 07:17:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,868
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15137987
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/karadanvers/pseuds/karadanvers
Summary: A compromising photograph of Supergirl gets into the hands of Cat Grant, putting James and Kara into a unique situation.





	a picture is worth a thousand words.

Kara Danvers had never been so confused.

She was seated on the lounge of Cat Grant’s office, a place she had scarcely been in since being promoted to a reporter a few years back. Sitting next to her was Cat herself, holding a box of tissues and smiling at her sympathetically. In each of Kara’s hands sat a large cupcake with mountains of icing, the kind Miss Grant would usually be in hysterics at the thought of sharing, and more cupcakes still sat on the coffee table beside them. Cat reached out an arm to pat Kara’s, sighing as she did so. Yes, Kara Danvers was definitely confused.

‘Now Kara,’ Cat began, raising even more alarm to Kara owing to the fact that she had called her  _Kara,_ not Kiera as she normally did. ‘I just want to tell you how  _truly_ sorry I am, I never would have believed it, not for a second if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes. And well, of course, now the whole world will have seen it too, which I do apologise for, but I didn’t get to own an entire media empire by passing on the scoop of the century, even if it  _does_ involve one of my employees! I practically created Supergirl, it hurts for me to see her in such a light!’

Kara’s breathe caught in her throat. _Oh no. Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no!_ thought Kara. _She’s finally done it. She’s worked out I’m Supergirl and now she’s gone and told everyone that Kara Danvers and Supergirl are one and the same_. Why she ever thought just wearing glasses for a disguise was a good idea she didn’t know.

‘Miss Grant, there’s a reason it was kept a secret and I-‘

‘A reason!’ Cat exclaimed, ‘Don’t think I don’t know there must have been a reason! We all know there’s a reason, for heaven’s sake!’

‘...we do?’ Kara questioned, once again confused at what Miss Grant was referring to.

‘Yes! No cheater  _wants_  to be found out, do they Kara?’

‘Cheating? How is Supergirl cheating?’

‘Oh, Kara, Kara, Kara.’ Cat sighed, taking one of the cupcakes from Kara’s hand and taking an enormous bite out of it. ‘Ever the naive, ever the innocent!’ she cried out, crumbs still in her mouth.

‘I’m sure James did the best he could at keeping the secret, but it was bound to come out eventually. Come to think of it, he was always rather close with Superman back when we were in Metropolis too, always calling him with that ridiculous watch of his whenever he pleased. Maybe I should revisit our work from back then and see If I can dig up anything there as well, but I’m going off topic, Kara. James betrayed your trust, and that’s all there is to it. Everybody knows now.’

Kara sat in disbelief. James had told Cat Grant- ruthless media empire Cat Grant- that she was Supergirl. She couldn’t believe it. She knew their relationship had had its ups and downs over the years- they’d had trouble getting things started in the beginning what with her Supergirl duties always getting in the way of their dates. James secretly becoming Guardiran had resulted in their biggest fight ever once Kara had found out, very nearly ending their relationship. But they’d married a couple of months ago, and everything had been smooth sailing ever since.

Only a few days ago Kara had surprised James at the end of the work day by sweeping him up in a kiss and flying them off to Italy for date night. And now? He had revealed her secret to Cat Grant, and by default, to everyone.

Adjusting her glasses with her free hand, Kara asked with a small, but intense voice, ‘James told you?’

Cat rolled her eyes. ‘Of course he didn’t, Kara! Even he’s not  _that_ stupid. No, Wilkins snapped the photograph’

‘Wilkins? Photograph? But then what does James have to do with this?’

Cat, now visibly annoyed with Kara, exclaimed ‘Kara! I know you have this silly childlike habit to believe the best in people, but it’s no use trying to do that now. James Olsen is a dirty, filthy, lying cheat who does not deserve your faith in him!’ She snatched the remote sitting on the coffee table and pointed it at the wall of screens arranged behind her desk and Kara finally understood.

Spanning the wall was a photo of James and Kara kissing the other day before they’d gone to Italy... only it wasn’t Kara.

At least, to Cat Grant and the rest of the world. To them, it was Supergirl kissing James- not his wife Kara Danvers. The headline underneath the photograph read: Hope, Help, and Compassion for All- Especially Married Men!

English translation: shit!

 

* * *

 

It was an hour later, and Kara was standing with Winn by his desk, the two of them watching in fear as Miss Grant yelled at James in her office. Kara had tried to warn James of what was about to come, but Cat had pounced on him so quickly once he’d arrived that there had been no way to alert him to their dilemma without revealing the _real_ Supergirl secret to Cat.

James had been yelled at by Cat before (it was basically a prerequisite to working at CatCo), but this was something else. Kara had listened in to the screams initially, but after hearing a dictionary’s worth of swear words in the span of seconds she decided it was best to instead fill Winn in on the situation.

Finally, after what seemed like a lifetime, Cat was shoving James out of the door and slamming it shut just as quickly before he could exit completely, hitting him square in the back. James stood bug eyed for a second, before slowly shuffling forward to where Kara and Winn were standing, looking defeated and afraid.

‘Well, it was nice knowing you, James,’ Winn said to James solemnly, reaching out to pat his shoulder. ‘I’ll really miss seeing you every day. You’re like a brother to me, man.’

‘You’ll still be seeing me everyday, Winn,’ James told him. ‘She didn’t fire me.’

‘She _didn’t_ fire you?’ asked Kara and Winn in unison, sure that after all that screaming there was no way James had a job anymore.

‘Nope. She said – and I quote- the only reason she isn’t going to fire me is that she thinks it will be ‘a bit’ harder to get an exclusive interview from me if she did. But I’m on very thin ice.’

Kara reached forward, wrapping her arms around James as he did the same to her. She buried her face into his neck for a moment, breathing him in, before adjusting her head to sit on his shoulder. In doing so, her eyes came in line with Miss Grant through the glass walls of her office, who shot her a look of deep disgust for embracing ‘the cheater’ James. Looking around, Kara noticed that the rest of their co-workers were looking at them oddly too.

‘Look at everyone’s faces,’ Kara said quietly to James, ‘They all think you’re a monster,’

‘Don’t worry about it, Kara, I can handle it,’ James assured her, pulling back from the hug, and then immediately drawing Kara back in after seeing the distraught look upon her face. ‘This will all blow over in a couple of days, and everyone will move on to something else. I promise.’

 

* * *

 

 It was a couple of days later. It had not all blown over.

Days at the office were awful. Everywhere they went, Kara received looks of pity, only for faces to contort seconds later into looks of hate for James. Kara’s desk was full to the brim with flowers, chocolates and cards of condolence. James’ desk had coffee ‘accidentally’ spilt on it hourly. It was impossible to get any work done, between Cat chastising Kara for sticking by James after her now knowing his ‘true personality’ and yelling at James to hurry up and give her the exclusive interview, only for her to yell some more at the sound of his voice once he attempted to do so.

They tried to escape the behaviour of their co-workers by going out into the field and doing some investigative work, but that turned out to be more of the same. None of their sources trusted James anymore to reveal any information to him, and it was hard sneaking into places undercover when both their faces were currently on the cover of every major National City newspaper.

Finally they ditched their CatCo work completely and tried to spend their time helping people as Supergirl and Guardian, but that didn’t work either. No one wanted to be rescued by Supergirl, not after she’d betrayed her best friend Kara Danvers like that. The high school Supergirl had been scheduled to give a talk about female empowerment promptly cancelled. To Kara’s disgust, the only people that _did_ want her help were creepy old men who upon learning that Supergirl did infact have a love life were faking accidents of all sorts to try and get in on the ‘action’.

By lunch time, day five, Kara had had enough. Pulling James up to the empty office they had used as HQ in the early days of her being Supergirl, she revealed to him the only way she could think of ending all the talk. She would reveal to the world that she was Supergirl, and as such there was no possible way that James was having an affair.

James shot the idea down immediately.

‘Kara, no. There is a _reason_ you being Supergirl is a secret. It’s because of things exactly like this- telling the world who you are will make them stop talking about this, sure, but then what? There’ll just be another rumour, only then you won’t have anywhere to retreat. You won’t have any privacy. CatCo is hell now, but imagine trying to live your life as Kara with everyone knowing you’re Supergirl. You couldn’t. You would be giving up a part of yourself, and I’m not going to let you do that.’

Kara had expected as much. He was right, really. She knew that what James was saying was true, but this week had been hell for her. Not because everyone had been treating her as if she were a thing to be pitied, and not because everyone had been snubbing Supergirl, but because of how much it hurt her to see the world treat James so horribly.

‘James, you are the most wonderful, most sensitive, most caring man I have ever known, and it’s killing me to see the world think the opposite. I just want this to all end and telling everyone I’m Supergirl is the only way I think we can do that.’ Kara told him, tears beginning to well at her eyes.

James cupped Kara’s face with his hands, wiping away the tears that had spilled onto her cheeks with his thumbs before kissing her softly.

‘And you are the most wonderful, most sensitive, most caring woman I have ever known, which is why I know this is hurting you so much But the two of us can make it through this together. Just like we’ve always done, okay?’ James smiled at her softly, reassuringly.

Kara opened her mouth to object but before she could get any words out James began to gently sway her head around playfully with his hands, changing his smile to a more mischievous one until she finally conceded, and laughed a gentle ‘okay,’ leaning her forehead to his and kissing him once more.

 

* * *

 

It was Winn who finally set them on the right track. When he found them up in the empty office later that afternoon, it was him who proposed the winning question. While Kara and James were focusing on how to fix people’s perception of what was happening, Winn took a different approach.

‘How do we even know that the photo was real?’ he asked.

‘It’s real,’ Kara told him. ‘I took James to Italy last week, and I stupidly kissed him in my Supergirl outfit before we took off. The photo was released a couple of days after that, so I’m sure its from then.’

Nodding, James added ‘I was wearing the same shirt that day as the one in the photo so that confirms it.’

‘Yeah, but all your shirts look the same. You’ve got like twenty different grey tee shirts of slightly varying shades’ countered Winn, holding his hands up in protest at the sharp look James sent his way.

‘Well, it’s true!’

‘Okay, so lets suppose there’s a possibility the photo could have been faked,’ James began, ignoring Winn’s last comment, ‘Who would do such a thing? And why?’

‘Well, we’ve already got the who down,’ informed Kara. ‘When Miss Grant first told me about all this she said it was Wilkins who gave her the photo. But I don’t know what he would gain from making it look like you and Supergirl were having an affair.’

‘He wants my job!’ exclaimed James, in much happier a tone that one would usually say such a sentence. ‘He has ever since he got hired, he’s basically told me himself. Always going on about how he was the art director at some magazine back in Central City before he came to CatCo, and how he thinks Cat should treat someone of his skill with a promotion. He probably thought since you’re the favourite Kara, Cat would have no choice but to fire me and the job would be his!’ By now James was practically bouncing.

‘But luckily for us Cat is too ambitiously insensitive for her own good that she kept me around for that exclusive!’ he beamed, high fiving Winn and Kara.

‘So now we just have to prove that Wilkins faked the photo’ Kara said.

‘Oh that won’t be a problem,’ Winn smirked, ‘Not a problem at all.’

 

* * *

 

Three energy drinks and a bag of chips later and Winn had found all the evidence he needed. It had been even easier than he’d expected, actually. Wilkins might have left no trace on his computer that he’d done anything fishy, but what Wilkins had forgotten was that all the files on CatCo computers were automatically backed up onto a separate server in case of a power failure or computer virus or whatnot. Sitting in a folder titled simply ‘promotion’ were dozens upon dozens of photos of James in various grey shirts (‘I told you so!’ Winn said to an eye rolling James) and Kara in her Supergirl costume. Saved with those were the various attempts Wilkins had made at forging the photo- clearly wanting to make sure that the final product looked like the real deal. Inserting a thumb drive into the computer, Winn copied all the evidence over and the three of them raced out of the room to Cat’s office as soon as the transfer was complete.

 

* * *

 

If Kara, James, and Winn had thought they’d seen the worst of Cat’s screaming when she’d yelled at James for having an affair with Supergirl, well, they were wrong. She could do much, _much_ worse, as Wilkins soon learned.

(‘-AND NOW I HAVE TO PRINT A RETRACTION TO THE _BIGGEST_ STORY I HAVE _EVER_ DROPPED!! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT THIS WILL DO TO MY CREDIBILITY?! DO YOU?! **I DIDN’T SAY YOU COULD SPEAK!!** ’)

Needless to say, unlike James, Wilkins was fired on the spot.

 

* * *

 

‘Ugh, Alex must have stolen the DVD,’ Kara complained later that evening, as she rummaged through her drawers trying to find the movie she and James had decided to watch in celebration of the world now knowing that James Olsen and Supergirl were definitely not having an affair.

‘I mean, it does belong to her but that still doesn’t give her the right!’ Kara grumbled before speed changing into her super outfit.

‘I’ll just be a sec,’ she told James, disappearing out the window with a gust of wind.

Twenty minutes later, Kara had returned, DVD in hand, and an elated smile on her face.

‘Sorry I took so long, there was a robbery right around the corner from Alex’s place and the owner of the shop wanted a photo with me and some autographs to give to his kids!’ Kara explained to a laughing James.

‘So they all love you again?’

‘Seems that way!’ Kara beamed, flopping down onto the couch next to James.

‘Well, of course they do. You’re great at your job, Supergirl.’

Kara grinned at the compliment, climbing into James’ lap.

‘I’m great at other things, too,’ she teased, playing with the buttons of his collar.

‘Oh?’

‘Uh huh,’ Kara smirked, reaching up to kiss James softly and slowly.

‘I can’t argue with you there,’ James answered, kissing Kara back as she laughed into the kiss.

‘We should probably be quick though if we’re going to do this, Supergirl,’ James moaned as Kara moved to pepper his neck with kisses, ‘My wife will be home any minute.’

It took four weeks for his bruise to heal.

 

**Author's Note:**

> this is the first thing i've written in literal years so hopefully it wasn't too bad lmao.  
> a big thank you to ryder/@karolsens on tumblr for reading through this for me before i posted! :) thank you!  
> i'm @kentclarks atm on tumblr so if anyone wants to come scream in my inbox about karolsen, thats where you can find me :)


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